Plainville Turkey Farm, a family-run business for six generations, has been sold to a company affiliated with international food company Hain Celestial Group.

After doubling its sales in the past four years to $40 million, and with opportunities for similar growth ahead, the company has simply gotten too big to be a family operation, said Mark Bitz, the sixth member of the Bitz and Ward families to run the business.

"The capital requirements have been really heavy duty," Bitz said. "It isn't a business any more that you just say to your children, 'Here it is, see what you can do with it.' ''

The Bitz family sold the farm to Plainville Farms LLC, a subsidiary of Hain Pure Protein Corp., which is a joint venture between the publicly traded Hain Celestial Group and a private equity firm, Pegasus Capital Advisors.

The price was not disclosed.

The Bitz family will continue to own the Plainville Farms Restaurant, the name of which will change to Plainville's Nature's Fare. The family also will retain its ownership of Central New York Crops and Central New York Feeds.

For more on this story, see staff writer Tim Knauss' report Thursday in The Post-Standard.